Financials Feeling Debt Default Pain

By Dave Kansas

Everett

Hello, Washington? Get ‘er done!

One sector that would not like a debt default at all: the banks.

And the sector is showing the pain today. The financial sector is the eighth-worst performer among the S&P’s 10 sectors. Take away Juniper’s 20% plunge, and financials would be battling the economically sensitive industrials sector for non-supremacy.

Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are both down about 4%. Bank of America is off 3.1%, Goldman Sachs and U.S. Bancorp are down 2%, J.P. Morgan is down 1.9% and Wells Fargo is off 1.5%. Regions Financial is down 4.4% and SunTrust is down 3.7%.

In theory, any resulting market chaos caused by a debtpocalypse could hit the financial sector harder than other areas of the economy. Moreover, the banks are also feeling the heat from the euro-zone fiscal crisis. In other words, the waters are becoming more treacherous.

Money managers are also showing stress. BlackRock, Janus Capital, Legg Mason, T. Rowe Price and Ameriprise are all down more than 4%.

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